Donald Trump claims he never called for Hillary Clinton to be locked up

The chant is perhaps one of the most popular among Trump supporters, and it refers to demands by his voters to imprison Clinton over her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

“You famously said, regarding Hillary Clinton, ‘Lock her up.’ You declined to do that as president,” Fox co-host Will Cain told Trump.

“I beat her,” Trump replied. “It’s easier when you win. And they always said lock her up, and I felt — and I could have done it, but I felt it would have been a terrible thing. And then this happened to me.”

Trump then asserted that he never called for Clinton’s jailing.

“I didn’t say ‘lock her up,’ but the people said lock her up, lock her up,” Trump said. “Then, we won. And I say — and I said pretty openly, I said, all right, come on, just relax, let’s go, we’ve got to make our country great.”

However, there are several instances in which Trump called explicitly for Clinton’s jailing and others in which he agreed with his supporters’ chants.

In July 2016, for example, Trump said he would not be “Mr. Nice Guy” when it came to Clinton, during a Colorado rally where the crowd was calling for Clinton to be locked up.

“Every time I mention her, everyone screams, ‘Lock her up, lock her up,’” Trump told the crowd. “You know what, I’m starting to agree with you.”

On Twitter, now known as X, Trump posted that October: “Hillary Clinton should have been prosecuted and should be in jail. Instead she is running for president in what looks like a rigged election.”

During a campaign rally in June 2016, Trump said Clinton “has to go to jail,” Politico reported at the time. “She has to go to jail. … She’s guilty as hell.”

During an October 2016 debate, Trump also threatened that he could jail Clinton if he used his executive power as president to reopen that email-server case. “If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation,” Trump said.

But after his election, on Nov. 9, 2016, Trump did not lash out at Clinton when, during a post-election rally, a crowd began a loud chant of “Lock her up!”

“Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country,” Trump said then. “I mean that very seriously. Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division. … I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”

But the chants didn’t stop, even four years later when Trump was running against a different Democratic presidential nominee. In September 2020, Trump said “I agree” during chants to lock up Clinton.

After his conviction in New York, Trump faces uncertainty about whether he could be sentenced to prison. His legal team has vowed to appeal the guilty verdict, and New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has scheduled his sentencing for July 11. Merchan, who oversaw Trump’s trial, will also decide his punishment. Potential sentences include up to four years in prison, home confinement, probation or a fine.